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We are an equal opportunity great good place. We could have a physician, a millwright, a retired schoolteacher, an unemployed housepainter ...

01 May 2010

Third Second Saturday

Unbelievably, it is already May. The old saying that Chicago has only two seasons, Winter and Construction, applies to Dixon, IL, also. Our side road, Hennepin Avenue, from Second Street is now one-way going north (how strange to say "north," when we would physically be going downhill towards the river), and will be that way almost until the end of the summer, while we get new drainage and lighting. Later, when all is done, we will have new trees planted. Those regularly coming downtown are not used to the change or inconvenience, but I hope they will be tempted with all that we have to offer, from great restaurants (the sushi bar at Touch of Thai is now open again! and Salamandra has more seating) to Second Saturdays to a wonderful riverfront park to (of course) Books on First for great coffee, conversation and pass-the-hat live entertainment.

Salamandra celebrate Cinco de Mayo tomorrow (Sunday, 2 May). And, remember, the second Saturday of May is the 8th.

We will miss, but we hope you won't have to, also, miss Sauk Valley Community College's production of Aristophanes's "Lysistrata," a great classic Greek comedic play on war protest, which opened this week and closes tomorrow. Jim Ferolo tells us that Jason Hedric's production is explicitly bawdy and hilariously done. He actually said the words: "doubled over" and "falling in the aisle laughing." If you are interested in reading the play, we have had two different publications of "Lysistrata" go out of print in the years that we have been around. The version we can offer now is a great volume containing not only four of Aristophanes's most well-known works, as translated by well-regarded translators --William Arrowsmith, Richard Lattimore and Douglas Parker, but also introductions with historical reference. Besides "Lysistrata," you can read "The Frogs," "The Clouds," and "The Birds."